Curse Mark Activation
by Wulfeh
Summary: Neji's curse mark is activated. I wondered what it would be like to have it activated...so I did. T to be safe... R&R Please! Officially complete.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own _Naruto_, Neji, or anything else. **

**Neji-san, I am so sorry! I had to do it... Please forgive me...**

**_Curse Mark Activation_**

He didn't even know who he was. All he knew was the pain, searing, ripping, shrieking pain. The fire. It shredded and slashed at him, digging its hungry fangs into his very soul.

He screamed – he didn't mean to, it just tore itself from his lips before he could stop it.

He didn't even know.

On his knees, clutching at his head, tearing at his hair, someone was screaming! Who? Him?

Praying for an end, a sweet, black abyss.

_Please! Please let it end! Let it stop! Make it stop!_

Who was he? Where was he? What was he?

How could he stand it? It felt like his skull was splitting – no _shattering_ into millions of red-hot pieces. Surely he would die. He wanted to die. Anything was better than this; any end to this torture would be bliss...

...............

Neji's face was pressed against the cold floor. Sweat dripped off him in small rivers. A dull throb in his forehead.

He tried to push himself up, but his arms were shaking too much to support him. Gasping like a fish out of water, he pressed his forehead to the cool marble.

_Neji, that's who I am, I'm sixteen. A Shinobi. Hyuga Cadet...Caged Bird. Hyuga Neji... _

Someone's voice cut through his thoughts. He knew the language, but the words made no sense, he couldn't comprehend their meaning..........

His mind felt fuzzy. Blackness was closing in. Unconsciousness drifted by him, tempting him. Neji fought the urge to give in weakly.

_Not yet... I'm not safe...Not yet..._

Footsteps moved away.  
Neji forced himself to his feet, shaking uncontrollably. He staggered forwards, backwards, leaning on the wall for support. Breathing heavily, Neji sank back down to the marble. He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth. He felt hot tears sneak out from beneath his eyelids.

_Have...gotta...get out of here... Away. _

His head still hurt. It was a splitting ache from the centre of his forehead and spreading out, down and all over his body.

Using the wall as a ladder, he hauled himself up, panting. Neji had not the slightest idea of how long it had been since his Curse Mark had been activated. Maybe it had been minutes. Maybe hours. He didn't know, he didn't care. His whole being was centered on escape. On...on _away_. Neji didn't know what came after that. After _away_, he didn't know. Even then, the pain was still there, clouding his consciousness. It hurt still. He didn't know _why_ it still hurt, _how_ it hurt, all he knew was that it _hurt_.

Anger flared up inside of him. Hatred of the Main Branch, long dormant, awoke. As these emotions spilled over, his Mark exploded again.

"N-no!" Neji gasped, grinding his teeth. With his right hand, he held himself against the wall, standing. The left clutched his head.

The pain subsided slightly, his mind cleared just enough for him to think.

Neji drew several shuddering breaths, opening his eyes.

_Away_

Instinct took over, and he bolted.

Outside. Buildings flashed by. Wet. His feet flew out from under him, and he crashed face down on the sidewalk.

_Mud?_ He sat up slowly, looking around him_. It's raining..._

The rain felt good on his face. On his Mark. Tentatively, he reached up and placed a finger on it. Neji regretted it instantaneously, as a wave of nausea washed over him. He groaned, retching painfully. The spasm brought another shockwave to his skull. As the sick feeling passed, Neji staggered to his feet again. This time he didn't run. _Couldn't_ run. He could barely even _walk_. The adrenaline rush of earlier was gone. Neji reached the training field on the verge of collapse.

_Safe_

He stumbled forward the last few paces, leaning against a tree, sinking to the ground, welcoming the darkness...

............

**I'm not planning on continuing this...but if anyone wants me to...just say it in a review, and I'll try. WARNING: If I continue, there _will_ be NejiTen**

**Please don't kill me... I just wanted to find out what would happen if I activated it... I'm not even sure that this is acurate in any way, shape or form...I just re-read the chapter with Hizashi...and used that as a base....**

**-hides- I'll come out when Tenten runs out of weapons... or at least decides that she doesn't want to kill me anymore...**

**~Wulfeh**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own _Naruto_, Neji, or anything else. **

**Here's chapter 2, for those of you who wanted it... mild NejiTen**

**Thanks to those who reviewed, it means a lot ^_^**

**_Curse Mark Activation Chapter 2_**

"Neji?" The voice came like a whisper of breeze through a thick curtain. He what the voice had said, and he knew the voice to be female. "Neji," the woman said again, "what the Hell are you doing sleeping out here?" A cool touch to his cheek. "You're burning up! Neji -"

"Tenten?" he mumbled, opening his pale lavender eyes. He blinked blearily at the girl. Tenten's coffee brown bangs fell around her eyes, accentuating the chocolate colored irises.

The worry on her face was evident as she knelt in front of him.

"What are you doing here? How long - My god! You're soaked!"

Neji blinked several more times, her face sliding in and out of focus each time his eyes opened and closed.

He pushed her roughly away from him, she landed hard in the mud. Tenten sat, shocked and angry.

"I'm fine," he snapped, sitting up straighter and ignoring the stiffness in his spine.

Tenten glared at him. She'd scraped her hand catching herself and her left arm was smarting from the jolt.

"The Hell was that for?!" she snarled, glaring kunai-knives at him. "You're obviously not 'fine' if you're acting like this!"

Neji forced himself halfway to his feet, giving up as a blood rush brought the fuzzy memories from the previous night screaming back to the center of his forehead. He leaned back, rocking on his heels and sitting hard. He drew his knees up to his face and rested his head on them,

"I apologize," he mumbled, rubbing his temples gently with his long, slender fingers. He squeezed his pale, flat eyes shut. "I d-didn't mean to push you. I was…scared."

Tenten blinked, the irritation and anger disappeared from her face. It was replaced with concern. She crawled over to him, rocking back on her knees. She tentatively touched his shoulder.

"What…what happened?" She had a feeling that she knew the answer, but she didn't want to be proved right. For Neji to admit that he was scared…

"I think I'm gonna throw up," Neji's voice came out as a half whimper, "My frigging head hurts so much…" He grabbed at his long bangs, "why does is still hurt?" he yanked hard on his hair, gritting his teeth and trembling.

"I hate them! I hate them! I **_hate_ them!" Neji's voice shook precariously as he tried to hold back a sob. **

"Why did they activate it?" her voice was soft, yet Neji picked up on the venomous undertone that she'd failed to completely suppress.

"I mouthed off… spoke out of place…" he mumbled, keeping his eyes down.

He was covered head to toe in mud, and when he'd fallen the previous night, he'd torn a whole in the knee of his pants. His hair was a mess, he had dark lines under his eyes and his throat was sore from screaming.

Neji closed his eyes and slumped against her. Tenten stiffened slightly from surprise, but relaxed almost instantaneously. She'd always been more comfortable with this sort of thing than he ever had been, ever would be. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. Neji rested his head on her shoulder,

"Tenten?"

"Mmm?"

"Thanks."

"You're Welcome," she murmered, kissing the green mark on his forehead gently.

It didn't hurt.

__

Safe…

**Well, I like it, and I believe I'm done now with this... ?**

**Review please! And check out my other stuff!**

**~Wulfeh**


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own _Naruto_, Neji, Tenten, or anything else. **

**Thanks to those who reviewed, it means a lot ^_^**

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**Chapter 3**

Neji's gentle breathing almost lulled her to sleep. The Hyuga had drifted into unconsciousness almost an hour ago, and he still leaned heavily against her. Tenten smoothed his messy hair, peering curiously at his face. She was surprised at how young he looked, almost like a small, frail child, while asleep. His long dark hair and eyelashes, slender face and lithe body only added to the effect.

Tenten wondered if this is what he had always looked like _before_ that awful mark had been branded on his forehead. Had he always been so relaxed? Had he always been this at peace? Before the Mark, before his father's death, had he been like this?

She pushed a stray strand of hair out of his face. A fire, fierce and wild, combusted into life in her chest. How dare they? How _dare_ they hurt him?! The flames consumed her anger, flaring, growing. It ignited her chakra, she felt it burning through her body.

Neji was one of the strongest people she knew.

Tenten hated them at that moment for reducing him to the near-tears, trembling human of earlier. Hated them all the more at the thought of what he could have been, if not for that damned Mark, for the Branches.

While Neji was strong, he was also weak.

Tenten knew that. She knew that he was scared, and through that fear, came his anger. His hostility. Everything that was associated with Neji wasn't.

She knew. She knew the real Neji. So few people had ever met _him_ before.

Hizashi - his father, Naruto, Lee, and her, Tenten. Four people. Perhaps Hinata had caught a fleeting glimpse of Neji, yet she somehow doubted it. And Hizashi was dead. Taken from him at such a young age. The main reason Neji was Neji…was his father.

The sleeping Hyuga shifted slightly, and Tenten felt the fire in side draw back slightly, no longer burning, only warming her. Causing a slight coloring to her face.

Tenten kept her arms wrapped protectively around him. She would stay like this forever, just holding him close, for all of eternity if need be. She would do anything to keep him safe.

Even throw herself between him and all of the Hyuga Clan.

The sight of Neji slumped against that tree this morning… She shuddered.

"My poor baby," she whispered, smoothing the unusually out-of-place hair. That was to be expected, of course, seeing what he'd been through.

Tenten's memories traveled back to their very first meeting in the academy. Neji had been irritable, rude and yet she couldn't help but be drawn to him. They'd become friends, slowly. _Painfully_ slowly. Tenten smiled nostalgically, wondering if her toughness was the only reason Neji had given in and accepted her as a companion.

Her feelings had progressed past friendship. But, Love wasn't something a Ninja could afford to wasted energy on. No feeling. That was the Ninja way. The one rule that every ninja she knew - with the exception of Neji, and she supposed, Sasuke - broke.

Or had Neji broken that rule years ago? Was he breaking it everyday? She wondered if his love for Hizashi had continued throughout his life, if it still fueled his anger.

Lost in her thoughts, Tenten didn't notice Neji's eyes flutter open. He looked up at her face. She looked down as he moved.

Their eyes met. Tenten began to pull her arms away from him, but he shook his head slightly.

The two sat in silence for a long while.

"Tenten?" Neji's voice was still hoarse, and his lavender eyes not quite as sharp and piercing as they normally were.

"Yeah?"

He said nothing, for a long while, but when he did, she felt the control in his voice.

"Do you think that the Hokage had the power to change laws older than the village itself?"

"Naruto said he was going to, when he becomes Hokage. I'm sure he'll find a way," she murmured. "He 'always keeps his promises'"

Neji managed a smirk.

"'Because that's his Nindo, his Ninja way'"

"I'll bet," Tenten said quietly, "I'll bet you anything that he marches right over to the Hyuga manor and gives them all a dose of Uzumaki, just for you."

Neji chuckled slightly, imaging Naruto blasting the walls of the manor down with his Rasengan, and all the Main Branch members - except Hinata, whom had been against his punishment from the start - running and screaming with their arms over their heads.

"And you know what?"

"No, what?"

"I'll be right there next to Naruto, destroying everything in sight."

Neji and Tenten both laughed.

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**_Did you know …_**

**Every time I type "N" I type "Neji" automatically, same with "T" and "Tenten" …I don't think that's healthy…**

**Spell check thinks that "Sasuke" is "sauce"? LOL XD**

**I am SO sorry this took so long... School only got out 2 weeks ago, then I had camp, vacation and then my internet decided to not work for almost another week! Please forgive me! I think I can get two more chapters, tops... but only if you guys want them!**

**Review please! And check out my other stuff!**

**~Wulfeh**

**If you have a play list on your _iPod/MP3_ called "NejiTen" --- YOU'RE _ALMOST AS NUTS AS I AM!!!_**


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